Employee performance measurement, analysis and feedback system and method

ABSTRACT

A method, apparatus and system is described that tracks and displays employee performance in real time, or near real time. Employee performance may be measured by the amount of sales associated with each employee over time. Sales reports are generated immediately after a sale is completed and sent to a server. The server records sales information in the sales reports in association with one or more employees responsible for the sale. Sales performance of each employee may be displayed to the employees in real time on a display at their workplace, in order to provide immediate feedback to the employees on their relative performance among each other. Sales goals, and awards for reaching the sales goals, may be defined by management and also displayed along with the employee sales information, to further motivate the employees.

BACKGROUND

I. Field of Use

The present application relates to the field of employee performance and management. More specifically, the present application relates to a systems, apparatus and methods for tracking performance of employees in retail environments and providing real-time or near real-time feedback to such employees and management.

III. Description of the Related Art

Employee performance is an important measure that affects retail establishments. Poor employee performance often reflects underlying problems with employee morality, training or other factors, and may result in driving customers away.

Tracking employee performance may be based on a quantity of goods or services that is sold by each employee. Such sales may be tracked, for example, by modern point-of-sale (POS) systems, where sales information is traced to each employee who was involved in the sale of goods or services. Reports may be generated daily, weekly or monthly to compare sales information of an establishment's employees.

One problem with such prior art employee performance tracking is that employee performance is not tracked in real time. Poor performers are typically identified after weeks or months of data tabulation, allowing such poor performers to remain on the job without remedial action by management.

Another problem of such prior art employee performance tracking is that there is no way to quickly provide additional training or motivation to poor performers. Such additional training or motivation typically occurs after weeks or months of tallying performance results from a POS system.

Yet another problem of such prior art employee performance tracking is that remedial actions are not tailored to specific employee problems, in part because the data provide by POS systems is not evaluated in a metric other than overall sales. If a reason for poor sales can be determined, tailored remedial actions may be taken to address the specific cause for poor sales.

Thus, it would be desirable to overcome the problems with prior art employee performance tracking systems in order to provide better performance feedback to employees and management.

SUMMARY

The embodiments described herein relate to systems, methods and apparatus for tracking and displaying real-time employee performance information. In one embodiment, a method is described, comprising receiving, by a processor via a communication interface, sales reports from a first retail establishment over a wide-area network, each of the sales reports comprising sales information pertaining to a sale of goods or services and an identification of an employee associated with each sale, storing, by the processor, the sales information in each of the sales reports in a memory in association with each respective, associated employee, in response to receiving at least one of the sales reports, generating, by the processor, a performance summary, the performance summary comprising cumulative sales information associated with each employee identified in the sales reports, and in response to generating the performance summary, providing, by the processor, the performance summary to the communication interface for display to at least the employees identified in the sales reports.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features, advantages, and objects of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description as set forth below, when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like referenced characters identify correspondingly throughout, and wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a system for tracking employee and retail establishment performance;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of one embodiment of an employee performance summary, shown as a leaderboard in a bar chart format; and

FIG. 3 illustrates a functional block diagram of one embodiment of the sever shown in FIG. 1; and

FIGS. 4A and 4B are flow diagrams illustrating one embodiment of a method executed by the server shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 for tracking employee and/or retail establishment performance.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention comprise systems, methods, and apparatus for tracking employee and store performance in real time, or near-real time. In one embodiment, performance is based on sales information as goods and services are sold in a retail environment. The sales information is may be provided to a local or a remotely-located server, where the server stores the sales information in association with one or more employees associated with each sale, and generates “performance summaries” based on the sales information. For example, each time that a customer pays for a meal at a restaurant, information pertaining to the meal, such as the total sales price, a description of the food and beverage items that were ordered, etc., is automatically provided to a server. The server records the sales information in association with each waitperson who took each order, and compiles a record of sales information pertinent to each waitperson. As sales information is received by the server, the server generates and/or updates a performance summary of any waitpersons presently on-duty at the restaurant, the performance summary comprising a historical, cumulative sales over a present shift at the restaurant. The performance summary may comprise a “leaderboard”, in the form of a bar chart of the sales of each waitperson on-duty during the shift. The performance summary is provided by the server to an employee display monitor, viewable by the employees, typically located in an employee break room or above a food or beverage pick-up location, for example. The display provides a real-time view of each employee's sales performance during the shift, so that the employees and management can gauge their relative performance to other employees. Further, remedial training content may be provided individually or collectively to one or more employees if certain performance goals are not achieved, as set by local management or a parent company.

Although the present disclosure describes an embodiment in reference to a restaurant setting, it should be understood that the concepts described herein could be applied to other retail settings, such as bars, clothing stores, automobile repair shops, airlines, plumbers, or just about any retail establishment where goods or services are sold by more than one employee.

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a system 100 for tracking employee and retail establishment performance. Shown are server 102, retail establishments 104 and 106, local servers 108, wide-area network 110, wireless communication devices 112, local employee video display monitors 114, and point-of-sale (POS) systems 118. Also shown coupled to wide-area network 110 is corporate headquarters 120. It should be understood that although only two retail establishment establishments 104 and 106 are shown in FIG. 1, in practice, server 102 may track performance data for a large number of retail establishments and their employees, the establishments either unrelated to each other and/or related to each other as “child” companies, franchisees, subsidiaries, etc. of a corporation or other business entity associated with corporate headquarters 120. Further, for purposes of clarity, only retail establishment 104 will be described in detail, below, as retail establishment 106 will operate similarly.

While retail establishment 104 typically comprises a provider of on-site consumption of food and/or beverages, i.e., a restaurant or bar, it could alternatively comprise other types of retailers, such as clothing stores, department stores, specialty retail stores, etc. Retail establishment 104 could alternatively comprise a services retailer, such as an auto repair shop, home service providers (such as TV or Internet installers, plumbers, etc.), hair and nail salons, or virtually any other type of service provider.

Server 102 is configured to track the performance of employees working on-site at retail establishment 104, as well as the overall performance of each retail establishment. In general, “performance” is associated with sales of goods or services, represented as a dollar amount or volume sales of goods or services sold, or a combination of both, over time. Other measures of employee performance may include employee on-time arrival statistics, “no-shows”, sick days taken, etc. Such performance data in the form of sales of goods and/or services is provided from each retail establishment via wide-area network 110 to server 102 as the sales occur, i.e., in real or near-real time.

Wide-area network 110 comprises one or more wide-area communication systems, such as the Internet, cellular data systems, satellite systems, fiber optic communication systems, or a combination of these and/or other systems or networks that allow communication from one location to another, remote location.

Performance data may be sent to server 102 each time a sale is made, or in batches of data sent at, for example, predetermined time periods, such as once per day, once per hour, etc., or when asked to do so by server 102 (herein “polling” time periods”). In one embodiment, the performance data comprises sales reports, each sales report indicative of the nature, type, and amount of each sale. In one embodiment, a sales report is provided by POS system 118 each time that a sale is completed, for example, immediately after a meal has been paid for by a customer. In another embodiment, such performance information is provided to server 102 by POS system 118 when initiated by server 102 at predetermined time intervals times set by management. Server 102 may need to format the request for sales reports in accordance with the particular POS system 118 used by retail establishment 104. Server 102 may automatically determine the type, make or model of POS system, or it may be manually identified by a user of server 102. POS system 118 is widely used in many retail establishments to process and track sales in a retail setting. For example, in a restaurant, food and beverage orders are taken from customers by waitpersons, either manually or by using wireless communication device 112. Using the manual method, a waitperson writes customer orders on a pad of paper, then accesses a common user interface to enter the orders into POS system 118. The orders are stored and used by POS system 118 to create customer bills, process customer payments, provide sales information analysis, and/or forwarding the orders to kitchen personnel for preparing the orders. Alternatively, using wireless communication device 112, the waitperson may enter customer orders electronically, where they may be sent wirelessly via a local-area network to POS system 118. Wireless communication device 112 may comprise a smart phone, tablet computer, or other portable wireless communication device executing a custom software application or “app” that allows a waitperson to record customer orders and transmit the orders to POS system 118.

In another embodiment, where POS system 118 is not used, performance information can be entered and stored into a local server/computer 108, where it may be sent to server 102 by the local server/computer 108. Performance information, such as sales associated with employees, may be entered into local server/computer 108 manually, using bar codes or other means well known in the art to account for retail sales.

At some point during the purchase of goods or services, POS system 118 may send performance data associated with a purchase, in one embodiment, in the form of a sales report, to server 102 via wide-area network 110. Typically, performance data is sent automatically immediately after a customer has paid for the customer's order, as determined by POS system 118. A sales report may comprise at least a total sale price of the goods or services that were purchased and an identification of one or more employees associated with the purchase, for example, the waitperson who took the order, a food server who served the order to the customer, one or more food preparers who prepared the order, or a manager on duty during the purchase. The identification of the employee may comprise an employee name, employee number or other form of identification. In another embodiment, each product or service that was purchased is itemized, typically with a description of each product or service along with a corresponding sales price for each item. An identification of retail establishment 104 is also typically provided in the sales information, comprising a store ID code, an address of retail establishment 104, or some other unique identifier, so that server 102 can store and manage sales reports received from different locations.

As sales reports are received by server 102, server 102 stores sales information in the sales reports in association with the identity(ies) of the employee(s) associated with each sale. Server 102 also typically associates the sales information with a particular retail establishment. For example, if the sales information comprises a total dollar amount of a customer order taken by waitperson John Smith working at Frank's restaurant, server 102 stores the dollar amount in association with an employee named John Smith and also in association with Frank's restaurant.

Server 102 compiles historical sales information for each employee and/or retail establishment identified in each sales information received via wide-area network 110. Server 102 uses this historical sales information to generate real-time, meaningful and easy-to-understand performance summaries associated with employees of retail establishment 104, employees of other retail establishments, and sales information associated with each retail establishment as a total of all the sales information received from respective retail establishments over a given time period.

In one embodiment, server 102 updates the stored sales information with new sales information as sales reports are received. For example, during an eight hour shift from 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM, server 102 may receive numerous sales reports from retail establishment 104 as customer orders are paid for. As each sales report is received, server 102 updates the sales information associated with any employees identified in the sales report and/or retail establishment 104 in total.

Server 102 may generate real time or near real-time performance summaries, illustrating historical sales information of each employee and/or retail establishment 104 in total using the cumulated sales reports received over time. In one embodiment, performance summaries are generated and/or updated as new sales reports are received, providing a real-time or near-real time update of the sales performance of each employee at each retail establishment monitored by server 102. In one embodiment, the performance summaries comprise a graphical representation of employee sales in the form of a “leaderboard”, showing historical sales information in real-time or near real-time of any employee who is presently “clocked in” and working a current shift at retail establishment 104. The employees shown in the performance summary may be identified by server 102 using arrival and departure times of employees as they “clock in” to work and “clock out”, sent by POS system 118 or another employee time-keeping system, over wide-area network 110 to server 102. Server 102 may include the performance of any employee currently clocked in when a performance summary is generated/updated. In this way, a real time or near real-time graphical representation of each employee's sales may be generated/updated for each employee who is presently working, so that their relative sales performance can be quickly ascertained. For example, referring back to FIG. 2, a bar chart references all waitperson employees that are presently working at retail establishment 104 along with their historical sales information over a predetermined time period. The predetermined time period may be assigned by management of retail establishment 104 or by upper management at corporate headquarters 120 and provided to server 102 via wide-area network 110. For example, a manager at retail establishment 104 may set the predetermined time period to coincide with a morning shift, lasting from 6:00 AM until 2:00 PM, or 8 hours, beginning at 6:00 AM, using a computer or other processing device, such as a smartphone, tablet computer, etc. executing a software application or “app” for allowing management to set the predetermined time period and provide the predetermined time period over the wide-area network to server 102.

Management may also set one or more performance goals using the app on the computer or other processing device. For example, management may set a total dollar sales performance goal for a retail establishment, or individual employees, over a predetermined sales period, such as during one or more shifts, over one or more days, weeks, months, or even years and provide these performance goals to server 102 via wide-area network 110. The performance goals could also be defined for multiple retail establishments. For example, management at corporate headquarters 120 could set a performance goal for each of its 40 stores to each sell $50,000 worth of goods or services each weekday and $160,000 worth of goods or services during each weekend, or it could set different amounts for one or more stores.

Again referring to FIG. 2, the performance summary shows five employees currently working a shift at a restaurant, with “Brian” having the highest historical sales so far during the shift, and “Lisa” having the lowest, as expressed in total sales dollars of customer orders taken by each of the employees. Additionally, or alternatively, the performance summary may be presented according to a list of goods or services sold by each employee and the number of each item sold by each employee during their shift. The performance summary additionally, in this example, shows a goal that was set by management. As the shift progresses, server 102 updates the sales information for each employee, updates the performance summary and provides the updated performance summary to local employee video display monitor(s) 114 via a website or direct communication over wide-area network 110 to local server/computer 108. The performance summary may additionally, or alternatively, be shown to certain employees, all employees, certain management or all management via one or more TVs, tablets, kiosks, projectors, locked PCs, or a corporate-mandated mobile application resident on every employees mobile phone, for example.

Local employee video display monitor(s) 114 may, in one embodiment, comprise an interactive device, capable of receiving input from employees or management in regard to the sales information, or other information, stored and managed by server 102. In this embodiment, local employee video display monitor(s) 114 may comprise a touch-screen device or a display with an interactive keypad, keyboard, mouse, or other well-known input device. Employees and management may obtain further information by interacting with local employee video display monitor(s) 114, for example, to obtain any employee's sales “ranking” with respect to any other employee's sales, or with respect to all employees' sales as a whole, sales over time, obtain detailed sales information for any employee (such as a listing of goods or services sold, associated prices, times/dates of sales, etc.), obtain historical sales information for any employee or the retail establishment as a whole over one or more other time periods than currently displayed, to view an employee's qualified incentives, as provided by management to server 102, their completed training, or a variety of employee-related information stored, managed or generated by server 102.

In another embodiment, local employee video display monitor(s) 114 comprises a display of POS system 118. POS system 118 typically comprises a display terminal for employees to see customer orders as they are placed, obtain pricing information, process payments, etc. In this embodiment, server 102 formats performance summaries for display on POS system 118, using proprietary information used by the various POS systems in the market, and then provides the formatted performance summary to POS system 118 via wide-area network 110 for display on its display terminal.

If an individual performance goal was set by management, server 102 compares the cumulative, historical sales information for each employee to the performance goal as new sales reports are received to determine whether any of the employees reached the individual performance goal as sales are reported to server 102. When one or more employees have reached the individual performance goal, server 102 may provide a notification to the website and/or over wide-area network 110 to local server/computer 108, where the notification may be displayed to employees and management by local employee video display monitor(s) 114. Alternatively, or in addition, server 102 may notify individual employees who attained the individual performance goal directly via an employee's personal mobile communication device, using contact information previously stored in server 102's memory. In addition to the notification, server 102 may also present an award to any employee who attained the individual performance goal, as provided by management and stored in server 102's memory, either prior to achieving a goal or after. The award may take the form of additional pay or a bonus for an employee meeting or exceeding the individual performance goal, which may be conveyed to the employee via local employee video display monitor(s) 114 as soon as the individual performance goal has been met, thus providing a real-time incentive for employees to meet the individual performance goal.

Similarly, other performance goals may be received by server 102 over wide-area network 110, such as shift, daily, weekly, and/or monthly performance goals for each retail establishment, or for all retail establishments in total. Server 102 compares the total sales for each retail establishment, as determined from the sales reports, with one or more of these goals to determine when a performance goal has been reached. A notification is provided to one or more retail establishments by server 102 in the same manner as discussed above as soon as one or more of these performance goals is achieved.

Server 102 may, alternatively or in addition to tracking and displaying the real-time sales information for employees and/or retail establishments, provide real-time, or near real-time remedial training content to employees and/or management when one or more minimum performance goals are not being met. As mentioned previously, server 102 tracks all of the sales information from each retail establishment, typically in connection with a date and time of the sale, an identification of an employee associated with the sale, a description (Miller Lite beer—12 oz, category (appetizer, main entrée, desert, etc.), and/or qualifier (happy-hour item, non-happy hour item, special price, etc.) of each item (or service) sold. In a retail clothing establishment, descriptions can comprise “Men's Levi blue jeans, size 34W 30L”, category could include “menswear”, “womenswear”, “teens”, etc., and qualifier may include “special price”, “undiscounted price”, etc. Based on the sales information, server 102 may provide tailored remedial training content to any retail establishment, or even individual employees, in need of training, based on poor sales results, in real-time or near real-time. Processor 300 may receive and store the remedial training content in memory 302 in association with the type of goal that was not achieved.

For example, if retail establishment 104 has failed to meet a pre-established performance goal of selling a predetermined number of desserts over the course of a week, as determined by server 102 using information from previously-received sales reports over the past week, server 102 may select a training video from memory in association with low dessert sales (as previously provided by management), and display the video on local employee video display monitor(s) 114. The video may offer tips and tutorials on how to sell dessert items. On an individual basis, server 102 may identify one or more employees who are not meeting a shift-based performance goal of selling 20 drinks per hour during a shift, and provide the one or more employees with remedial training content in the form of a training video, tips and or tutorials on how to sell more drinks. The remedial training content may be provided as soon as server 102 determines that an employee or retail establishment is not meeting a performance goal, or is predicted by server 102 not to meet a minimum performance goal. In other embodiments, the remedial content is scheduled for presentation at later time, such as at the end of a shift. Server 102 may provide an indication of a meeting time, a meeting place, an identification of employees who are required to attend, based on their past sales information, depending on the number of employees not meeting the performance goals, or whether a store-based performance goal is not being met. The remedial training content is typically pre-stored in server 102 and selected by server 102 based on which performance goal is not being met, an amount that a performance goal has missed expectations, the frequency of missing a particular performance goal, etc. In this way, remedial training content may be provided to employees or to retail establishment 104 as a whole, pertinent to the qualitative and quantitative shortcomings identified by server 102.

In one embodiment, in addition to tracking real or real-time employee performance, server 102 could be used to provide “flash incentives”. These are incentives that get triggered either manually, i.e., by local or corporate management at any time, or automatically by server 102 in response to certain performance goals being met (or not met). Flash incentives may be designed to address specific sales goals, such as selling a certain volume of craft beer during a football game, or a new appetizer during happy hour. Flash incentives are defined and provided by local or corporate management to server 102 over wide-area network 110 using a customized software application that allows management to define and upload various flash incentives to server 102. A flash incentive may comprise a time at which the flash incentive should be activated by server 102, an identification of which retail establishment(s) the flash incentive is applicable to and one or more start times associated with one or more retail establishments when the flash incentive should be activated. Alternatively, or in addition, the flash incentive may comprise a performance metric to trigger a flash incentive. For example, management at corporate headquarters 120 could define a flash incentive as “Whoever sells the most craft beer in the next hour, gets $200”, to be displayed to the employees of any retail establishment that has failed to achieve a minimum performance goal of selling $500 worth of craft beer during the first hour of any happy hour. In another example, a manager at retail establishment 104 could define and provide a flash incentive to server 102 at any time the manager believes would beneficial to increasing sales. Flash incentives may be stored in association with employees who are currently clocked-in at retail establishment 104, so that any employee can check whether a flash incentive is currently being offered to the employee.

In another embodiment, server 102 can provide flash incentives, low-sales warnings, remedial training content, or take some other sort of action in response to sales performance of two or more retail establishments. In this embodiment, management may identify two or more retail establishments that share similar location types, traffic, demos, historical data, staff performance, demographics, etc. Server 102 may react in real time or near real-time when one or more of the identified retail establishments fails to meet a minimum performance goal set by management by sending an alert message to management when a minimum performance goal is not met, either to corporate headquarters 120 or to each retail establishment identified by management as belonging to a select grouping of retail establishments, send remedial training content to such retail establishments, offer flash incentives to such retail establishments, etc.

In another embodiment, server 102 can be used to provide expected performance goals for retail establishments. Once enough performance information (i.e., sales, profits, and other performance metrics) are gathered by server 102 via received sales reports, server 102 may generate future performance goals automatically based on the prior performance metrics, applicable over one or more time periods. For example, a particular retail establishment may generate the following sales results, as determined by sales reports received by server 102:

Average Daily Average Daily Weekday Sales Weekend Sales $100k $150k

Month Sales January $1.0MM February $.80MM March $1.0MM April $1.0MM May $1.1MM June $1.1MM July $1.1MM August $1.1MM September $1.1MM October $1.1MM November $1.4MM December $2.0MM

As shown in this example, a retail establishment averaged $100 k in sales on weekdays and $150 k sales Saturdays and Sundays. Server 102 may use this information to calculate a sales goal for the retail establishment as a whole using the past sales information. In one embodiment, server 102 may set future performance goals higher than previous sales information indicate, to account for a growing business. In this case, server 102 may use a growth factor provided by management as a factor for use in future forecasts, such as 3%, indicating that future sales performance should match previous sales, over given time periods, increased by 3%. Server 102 may generate future performance goals automatically as previous sales information becomes available, or it may be generated manually, by a manager requesting that such a future performance goal be generated. One or more future performance goals may be generated, for example, a first performance goal of $103 k in daily, weekday sales, $154.5 k in daily, weekend sales and monthly performance goals of 3% greater than last year's same-month period. Of course, a multitude of other performance goals may be generated using the above information and/or using other information, such as highest daily/weekly/monthly sales of any retail establishment in multi-store franchise, highest individual daily/weekly/monthly sales of any employee, etc.

FIG. 3 illustrates a functional block diagram of one embodiment of sever 102. Specifically, FIG. 3 shows processor 300, memory 302, communication interface 304, and optional user interface 306. It should be understood that the functional blocks shown in FIG. 3 may be connected to one another in a variety of ways, and that not all functional blocks necessary for operation of sever 102 are shown (such as a power supply) for purposes of clarity.

Processor 300 is configured to provide general operation of sever 102 by executing processor-executable instructions stored in memory 302, for example, executable code. Processor 300 is typically a general purpose microprocessor or microcontroller, such as any one of a number of Core i-series class microprocessors manufactured by Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif.

Memory 302 comprises one or more information storage devices, such as RAM, ROM, EEPROM, UVPROM, flash memory, SD memory, XD memory, or virtually any other type of electronic memory device. Memory 302 is used to store the processor-executable instructions for operation of sever 102 as well as any information used by processor 300, such as performance goal information, awards, employee information, retail establishment information, and remedial training content.

Optional user interface 306 is coupled to processor 300 and allows an individual access to information stored in memory 302, as well as to provide server updates and maintenance. User interface 306 may comprise one or more pushbuttons, switches, sensors, touchscreens, keypads, keyboards, ports, and/or microphones that generate electronic signals for use by processor 300 upon initiation by a user. User interface 306 may additionally comprise one or more visual display devices for display of information to users. Of course, the aforementioned items could be used alone or in combination with each other and other devices may be alternatively, or additionally, used.

Communication interface 304 comprises circuitry necessary for processor 300 to communicate with retail establishments, employees, and management over wide-area network 110 using communication protocols well known in the art.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method executed by server 102 for tracking employee and/or retail establishment performance. It should be understood that the steps described in this method could be performed in an order other than what is shown and discussed, and that minor steps have been omitted for clarity. It should also be understood that the foregoing is described with respect to a single retail establishment, such as retail establishment 104, although server 102, in practice, typically performs the method for numerous retail establishments simultaneously.

At block 400, processor 300 may receive one or more performance goals over wide-area network 110 via communication interface 304, from a manger of retail establishment 104, from a parent corporation of retail establishment 104, or both. The performance goals establish one or more sales, profit, personal, or other objectives for employees and/or retail establishments as a whole, to meet or exceed over a predetermined time period, such as a shift, a day, a week, a weekend, a month, or longer. The performance goals may additionally comprise minimum performance goals, representing a minimum level of performance that is acceptable to management during a given period of time. The performance goals may be expressed in dollars, dollars per category of goods or services, quantities of goods or services, or quantities of goods or services sold in each category of goods and services. For example, where retail establishment 104 is a clothing retailer, a manager located at retail establishment 104 may set performance goals of selling $50,000 worth of clothes each week, $5,000 worth of clothes for each weekday day-shift and 100 pairs of a particular make and model of woman's shoes. In a restaurant setting, a manger of one restaurant may set an individual employee performance goal of selling $2,000 worth of food and beverages to customers over each 8-hour shift. A corporate headquarters might set a performance goal of $100,000 for each of its affiliated retail establishments.

At block 402, server 102 may receive indications of one or more awards associated with one or more of the performance goals from management, received over wide-area network 110. The awards are intended to provide incentives for employees and/or management to reach the performance goals, either on an individual or group basis. For example, one award may be defined as a fixed bonus for any employee meeting or exceeding a predetermined, individual sales amount during a shift, or over the course of 3 days of work. Another award may be variable, based on a percentage of sales during a shift by the employee and/or by other employees. The awards can be individually-based or based on the performance of all of the employees during a predetermined timer period. Server 102 receives the awards and stores them in memory 302, each in association with a corresponding performance goal.

The performance goals and awards may be entered by a manger into wireless communication device 112 or any other wired or wireless computer operated by the manger. A software application running on wireless communication device 112 or a computer is configured to receive performance goals and awards from management and provide them to server 102 via wide-area network 110.

At block 404, processor 300 may receive employee information regarding employees currently employed by retail establishment 104 or parent corporation 120 over wide-area network 110 via communication interface 304. Such employee information may comprise a name, an employee number, an employee classification (such as a waitperson, bartender, food server, sales associate, etc.), an address, a phone number, an email address, a social security number, a photograph of the employee, or other personal information related to each employee. The employee information may be used by processor 300 to associate sales with the employees, as well as to provide contact information to processor 300 in the event that an award or remedial training content is provided to an employee individually. The information may be also used to automatically provide monetary rewards to employees' paychecks.

At block 406, processor 300 may receive remedial training content in the form of video, audio and/or textual tutorials, helpful hints, or other media forms, for presentation to one or more employees or retail establishments if certain minimum sales goals are not achieved. Each of the remedial training content may comprise an identification or association with a particular performance goal, such that particular remedial training content can be provided to employees or retail establishments as a whole, depending on the performance goal that was not achieved. In another embodiment, the remedial training content are not provided to server 102, but rather stored off-site, for example at corporate headquarters 120 or on local server/computer 108 at retail establishment 104. If a performance goal is not achieved, processor 300 may communicate with corporate headquarters 120 or retail establishment 300 via communication interface 304 and wide-area network 110 to request remedial training content in accordance with the particular performance goal that was not achieved.

At block 408, processor 300 may receive sign-in information via wide-area network 110 and communication interface 304 as each employee “punches in”, “clocks in” or otherwise shows up for work at retail establishment 104. In one embodiment, as employees arrive for work, they clock in using POS system 118, which stores an identification of each employee along with the date and time that each employee clocked in for work. This information may then be provided to server 102 via wide-area network 110 as each employee clocks in. When processor 300 receives the sign-in information, it stores it in memory 302 in order to determine, in one embodiment, which employees are clocked in at any given moment. In one embodiment, the sign-in information may comprise employee classification information, such as whether each employee is a cook, busboy, food server, waitperson, management, etc. Such classifications may be used by processor 300 to determine which employees are primarily responsible for the sales that occur at retail establishment 104, and to track performance of only those employees as designated. In another embodiment, employee classifications are provided to server 102 in the employee information received at block 404 and stored by processor 300 in memory 302. For example, employees that are clocked in as “waitpersons”, “food servers”, or the like, who have direct contact with customers and are responsible for generating or delivering customer orders, may be identified by processor 300 as being responsible for customer orders (herein “Designated Employees”). In other embodiments, other employees may be considered as Designated Employees, such as food preparers, management, hosts/hostesses, etc.

At block 410, customer orders for goods or services are taken, processed, performed and/or served by the Designated Employees during a shift at retail establishment 104. The customer orders are typically entered into POS system 118 by the Designated Employees and stored in a database associated with POS system 118 for later retrieval and analysis. An identification of one or more Designated Employees may be associated with the order, such as an identification of a waitperson who took the order, a food server who served the order to the customer, a food preparer who prepared the order, etc.

After orders have been delivered to customers or otherwise provided, customers may pay for their goods or services via POS system 118, using various forms of debit, credit, gift cards, and/or cash. For example, after a customer has eaten a meal at a restaurant, the customer may pay for the meal by swiping a credit card through a card reader incorporated into a tablet computer provided by the restaurant. The credit card information is transmitted wirelessly to POS system 118, where it is processed. In response to successful processing of the payment, POS system 118 may provide a sales report to server 102 via wide-area network 110. In other embodiments, sales reports are generated after a predetermined number of orders have been processed or after a predetermined time period has elapsed, such as an hour, a day, etc. In yet another embodiment, sales reports are generated and provided to server 102 in response to a command to provide such sales reports by server 102, for example, at predetermined time periods set by management.

Each of the sales reports comprise sales information pertaining to the customer order that was processed by POS system 118, such as an identification of each item or service in the order, an associated sales price of each item or service, a total sales price of the order, a predefined category of goods or services (such as “dessert”, “beer”, “shoes”, “special”, etc.), one or more Designated Employees associated with the order, a time and date that the order was processed, an identification of retail establishment 104, etc. The sales report is received by processor 300 via communication interface 304 and wide-area network 110.

At block 412, processor 300 receives sales reports and stores the related sales information in memory 302 in association with the one or more Designated Employees named in the sales report. For example, the sales report may list John Smith, at restaurant #29 of franchise X, as a waitperson who took a customer's order on May 12, 2016 at 8:10 pm totaling $43.18, comprising a chicken wing appetizer costing $12.99, a fish taco plate costing $$14.99, two lite beers totaling $12.00, and tax of $3.20. In this example, processor 300 searches for a previously-created data record in memory 302 pertaining to an employee named John Smith at restaurant store #29 of franchise X. Such a data record may have been created upon receipt of the employee information received at block 404, or upon receipt of employee clock-in information when each employee clocks in for work at retail establishment 104. In any case, when the data record is found, processor 300 stores at least some of the information in the sales report in the record associated with John Smith. Alternatively, processor creates a new data record for storing at least some of the sales information in association with John Smith and/or other Designated Employees. When the sales report comprises two or more orders, processor 300 may store the sales information of each order in association with an identified Designated Employee associated with each order.

Generally, the sales information stored in association with Designated Employees is stored as individual data records. In other words, each time sales information is stored in association with a Designated Employee, details such as the time, date, item description, price of each item, sales tax, etc., is stored. However, in other embodiments, processor 300 stores only one or more cumulative values in memory 302. For example, John Smith may have had total sales of $20,000 over the course of 6 months, $12,000 of which were food sales and $8,000 of which were beverages sales. Each of these figures is stored in memory 302 in association with John Smith. When a new sales report is received by server 102, indicating that a new customer order was processed by POS system 118, comprising $20 of food and $5 of beverages, processor 300 ads the food and beverage amounts in the just-received sales report and updates the stored sales information pertaining to John Smith to reflect total sales of $20,025, comprising $12,020 in food sales and $8,005 in beverage sales, at a date and time as recited in the sales report. In this way, processor 300 can determine John Smith's sales, or performance, over any given time period.

At block 414, in response to receiving each sales report at block 412, processor 300 generates a new performance summary or updates an existing performance summary relating to the performance of one or more Designated Employees during a predetermined time period, such as a shift, a day, a week, etc. In one embodiment, the performance summary comprises a total sales amount, expressed in dollars or in quantities of each good or service sold during a particular time period, for each Designated Employee, as determined by processor 300 retrieving previous sales information from memory 302. In another embodiment the performance summary is generated only with respect to Designated Employees that are working at retail establishment 104 when a sales report is received, as determined by processor 300 using the sign-in information received at block 408. The performance summary may be generated at predetermine time periods, such as once per hour or, preferably, each time that a sales report is received. Regarding the latter, in this way, real-time employee performance may be generated, enabling instant feedback on employee performance.

In one embodiment, processor 300 generates an initial performance summary when processor 300 determines that a predetermined time period, as set by management at block 400 in association with a particular performance goal, has begun. Processor 300 may then determine which Designated Employees are presently clocked in to retail establishment 104, using the sign-in information received at block 408, and generate the initial performance summary based on the presently clocked-in Designated Employees. In another embodiment, processor 300 generates the initial performance summary when two or more Designated Employees have either clocked-in or upon receipt of two or more sales reports associated with two or more Designated Employees. In one embodiment, processor 300 determines whether there has been a performance goal defined for a particular time period by evaluating time information of each of the performance goals stored in memory 202. If a performance goal has been defined, an indication of the performance goal may be included in the performance summery. In one embodiment, processor 300 additionally determines whether there has been an award defined in association with the performance goal, by evaluating award information previously stored in memory 302 in association with the performance goal that was identified. If an award has been defined in association with a performance goal during a time period, processor 300 may include an indication of such an award in the updated performance summary.

The performance summary may be presented to management and employees in a number of different formats. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the performance summary comprises a graphical “leaderboard” of the total sales of each Designated Employee during a particular time period. In other embodiments, a list of Designated Employees could be presented, ranked by decreasing sales amounts during the predetermined time period. The leaderboard is an especially convenient way for employees and management to determine, at a glance and in real time or near real time, the performance of each Designated Employee currently working at retail establishment 104.

At block 416, processor 300 provides the initial or updated performance summary to retail establishment 104 for display to at least the Designated Employees via one or more local employee video display monitors 114 located within retail establishment 104. For example, processor 300 may provide the performance summary to a web server hosting a website dedicated to providing the performance summary, and/or other information pertaining to retail establishment 104, to at least the Designated Employees. The one or more local employee video display monitors 114 may be coupled to the website via local server 108 in communication with wide-area network 110. The Designated Employees may view the performance summary as they work their shift by viewing the one or more local employee video display monitors 114. In another embodiment, performance summaries may be provided by processor 300 directly to local server 108 via wide-area network 110.

At block 418, in one embodiment, in response to receiving additional sales reports over wide-area network 110 over time, processor 300 updates the performance summary based on the new sales information in the additional sales reports and the existing sales information stored in memory 302, for each affected Designated Employee. For example, when processor 300 receives a sales report indicating that Jane Smith just sold $50 worth of ladies denim jeans, processor 300 stores this information in memory 302 in an account record associated with Jane Smith, then determines whether Jane Smith had any other sales during the predetermined time period, such as $30 worth of shoes. Processor 300 uses the sales information of $50 worth of ladies denim jeans and the previous $30 worth of shoes sold during the predetermined time periods and uses this information to update the performance summary to reflect total sales for Jane Smith of $80 during the predetermined time period. A graphical performance bar associated with Jane Smith may then be increased in length, proportional to the increased total sales attributed to Jane Smith during the predetermined time period. A similar process is conducted for other sales reports received in association with other Designated Employees at the retail establishment where Jane Smith is working.

At block 420, processor 300 may generate a variety of other useful information from the sales reports. For example, it may calculate a relative sales or volume “ranking” of each Designated Employee as compared to other Designated Employees based on the sales of each employee over one or more time periods.

At block 422, processor 300 may check to determine whether the sales for any Designated Employee has met or exceed one or more performance goals previously set by management, by comparing a Designated Employee's sales information to the one or more goals stored in memory 302. In one embodiment, processor 300 performs this determination in response to receipt of each sales report received over communication interface 304 for the Designated Employees named in each sales report. If one or more goals were met or exceeded, processor 300 may provide a notification, via the performance summary, that a Designated Employee has met or exceeded one or more sales goals, an identification of the Designated Employee, and an identification of the sales goal(s) that was/were achieved. For example, during a shift at retail establishment 104, in response to a sales report, processor 300 determines that John Smith exceeded a shift-based sales goal while also exceeding an employee weekly sales goal as well. As a result, the performance summary is updated to reflect the new sales information associated with the sales report and, as well, an indication that John Smith exceeded the two performance goals.

Processor 300 may also identify underperforming Designated Employees or entire retail establishments in real or near real-time who are not meeting minimum performance goals set by management. In this embodiment, processor 300 tracks the sales of each Designated Employee as sales reports are received, as discussed above. Processor 300 may compare each Designated Employee's and/or each retail establishment's up-to-the-minute sales and compare the sales to one or more of the minimum performance goals set by management, representing a level of unacceptable sales during some period of time. The minimum performance goals may be expressed as an amount or volume of sales, or expressed as a rate of sales, so that performance can be determined in real or near-real time as sales information is received by processor 300.

For example, a minimum sales goal may be defined by management located at corporate headquarters 120 running company Y and provided to server 102 via wide-area network 110, defined as when any Designated Employee sells less than $500 worth of goods or services during an 8 hour shift more than two times per week and another minimum sales goal defined as when any retail establishment, as part of a franchise, sells less than 80% of what other retail establishments sell in the franchise in any given week. Processor 300 stores these minimum performance goals in memory 302 and compares the sales information associated with the Designated Employees of company Y during or after a shift to the individual minimum performance goal to determine if any employee fails to meet the criteria set forth by Company Y management, as stored in memory 302 and, further, calculate the total sales of each retail establishment that is an affiliate of Company Y as a sum of the sales of each Designated Employee employed at each retail establishment and compare the total sales, or other metric, to the minimum store-based performance goal to determine if any of the retail establishments affiliated with Company Y has failed to meet the minimum performance goal as stored in memory 302.

In one embodiment, a minimum performance goal could be defined as when a Designated Employee fails to perform as measured by the performance of one or more other Designated Employees, i.e., based on relative performance. For example, a minimum performance goal could be defined as when any Designated Employee sells less than 40% than the average of all other Designated Employees during a shift, or over some other time period, such as days, weeks, etc. In this embodiment, processor 300 tracks the sales performance of each Designated Employee and generates a metric on which to judge individual performance. For example, processor 300 may calculate a cumulative, average sales figure for all Designated Employees during or after a shift, day, week, etc. (excluding, in one embodiment, sales less than a predetermined amount, as set by management). In another embodiment, processor 300 calculates a minimum rate of sales, i.e., a sales-per-time figure, for example a sales per hour dollar amount, representing the dollar value of sales made by each Designated Employee each hour, or other predetermined time period. In either case, processor 300 calculates average sales numbers, either during or after a predetermined time period, and compares each Designated Employee's sales to the average sales figure and identifies Designated Employees who fail to meet the minimum average sales figure.

For example, a minimum performance goal could be set by management of a restaurant and provided to server 102, defined as any employee who has not sold at least 60% as much as other Designated Employees per hour. As sales reports are received by processor 300, processor 300 tracks the cumulative sales of each respective Designated Employee as the sales reports are received. Processor 300 also updates a sales-per-hour figure of each respective Designated Employee in response to receiving each sales report. In one embodiment, each time that a new sales report is received, processor 300 additionally updates an average sales rate of all of the Designated Employees (i.e., the denominator is updated to reflect an updated time), excluding any sales rates that are less than a predetermined minimum sales rate, also set by management.

In another embodiment, processor 300 may predict when a minimum performance goal is not likely to be achieved by one or more employees, so that early detection of poor performance may be corrected by providing immediate remedial correction. For example, processor 300 may use the minimum performance goal and divide it by the number of hours in the time period associated with the minimum performance goal, in effect, calculating a rate of sales per hour. Processor 300 then evaluates the sales of each Designated Employee each hour to determine any employee who has failed to sell goods or services commensurate with the calculated rate, and flag any employee who fails to meet the hourly sales figures.

At block 424, if one or more minimum performance goals have not been achieved, processor 300 may notify the identified Designated Employee(s) who failed to meet the minimum performance goal(s) that was/were not achieved. For example, processor 300 may generate a message and send the message to the identified Designated Employee via the Designated Employee's mobile communication device that the Designated Employee did not sell enough drinks during a 3-hour drink special for 3 out of 4 of the Designated Employee's previous 4 shifts, and additionally, actual sales figures of the Designated Employee's previous 4 shifts. The message may comprise a breakdown of goods or service categories or detailed line items, of the goods and service sold over some previous time period(s). The message may be provided to local employee video display(s) 114 for display to Designated Employees and management while they work, to a mobile communication device associated with a particular Designated Employee who failed to achieve the minimum performance goal, and/or to a group of employees and/or managers via their respective mobile communication devices who, collectively, failed to achieve a minimum performance goal.

At block 426, processor 300 may retrieve remedial training content in the form of video, audio or textual content stored in memory 302 and associated with the particular minimum sales goal(s) that was not achieved. For example, if a Designated Employee is determined to have low sales in comparison to other Designated Employees working similar shifts over the course of three consecutive shifts, processor 300 may select remedial training content associated with low comparative sales from memory 302 and provide the selected remedial training content to such an identified Designated Employee, by using contact information pertaining to the Designated Employee as stored in memory 302. The remedial training content may be provided to the Designated Employees and/or management via the local employee video display(s) 114 and/or via employee/management mobile communication devices. An indication of any remedial training content may be stored in association with any Designated Employee who was provided such remedial training content, for later review by a Designated Employee or management.

At block 428, processor 300 may determine whether an award has been designated in association with reaching one or more of the sales goals. Processor 300 identifies the sales goal that was achieved in block 418 and then determines whether an award has been previously stored in memory 302 in association with the sales goal that was achieved. When an award is associated with a sales goal, processor 300 may notify the Designated Employees that John Smith received one or more awards, and a description of the award(s), via local employee video display monitors 114. Processor 300 may also store an indication in memory 302 of the award in association with the Designated Employee who received the award.

In one embodiment, an award may comprise a dynamic award, where a value of the award changes with respect to one or more variables, such as total or individual sales volumes, the time taken to reach a particular sales goal, shift information, etc. For example, a shift-based goal may be defined by management for Designated Employees to sell at least $3,000 during any swing shift, where a monetary award is defined as a percentage of sales exceeding the $3,000 sales goal. So, if any Designated Employee sells, for example, $3,500 worth of goods or services during the swing shift, the award for sales exceeding $3,000 might be set to 10% by management, so that sales of $3,500 during a shift would result in an award of $50 to the employee. Similarly, an award could be designated by management to give all Designated Employees an incentive award tied to the cumulative sales of the Designated Employees, collectively, over a predetermined time period, such as a shift, a day, a week, a month, etc. For example, an award of 8% of sales over $50,000 in any week may be split among any Designated Employee who worked during such a week, in proportion to the hours worked for each Designated Employee, for example. The performance summary is updated with an indication of the award and the Designated Employee who was given the award at the time that the award was determined, so that instant feedback may be provided to the Designated Employee who reached the performance goal and to other Designated Employees via the local employee video display monitors 114 as a motivational tool to sell more goods or services.

The methods or algorithms described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in processor-executable instructions executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The processor-executable instructions may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components.

Accordingly, various embodiments of the ideas presented herein may include a computer readable media embodying a code or processor-readable instructions to implement the methods of operation of the system in accordance with the methods, processes, algorithms, blocks and/or functions disclosed herein.

The disclosed method and apparatus has been explained above with reference to several embodiments. Other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of this disclosure. Certain aspects of the described method and apparatus may readily be implemented using configurations other than those described in the embodiments above, or in conjunction with elements other than those described above. For example, different components, algorithms and/or logic circuits, perhaps more complex than those described herein, may be used.

Further, it should also be appreciated that the described method and apparatus can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, or a system. The methods described herein may be implemented by program instructions for instructing a processor to perform such methods, and such instructions recorded on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium such as a hard disk drive, floppy disk, optical disc such as a compact disc (CD) or digital versatile disc (DVD), flash memory, etc., or communicated over a computer network wherein the program instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication links. It should be noted that the order of the steps of the methods described herein may be altered and still be within the scope of the disclosure.

It is to be understood that the examples given are for illustrative purposes only and may be extended to other implementations and embodiments with different conventions and techniques. While a number of embodiments are described, there is no intent to limit the disclosure to the embodiment(s) disclosed herein. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents apparent to those familiar with the art.

In the foregoing specification, the invention is described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited thereto. Various features and aspects of the above-described invention may be used individually or jointly. Further, the invention can be utilized in any number of environments and applications beyond those described herein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the specification. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. It will be recognized that the terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having,” as used herein, are specifically intended to be read as open-ended terms of art. 

We claim:
 1. A method executed by a server for tracking and displaying real-time employee performance information, comprising: receiving, by a processor via a communication interface, sales reports from a first retail establishment over a wide-area network, each of the sales reports comprising sales information pertaining to a sale of goods or services and an identification of an employee associated with each sale; storing, by the processor, the sales information in each of the sales reports in a memory in association with each respective, associated employee; in response to receiving at least one of the sales reports, generating, by the processor, a performance summary, the performance summary comprising cumulative sales information associated with each employee identified in the sales reports; and in response to generating the performance summary, providing, by the processor, the performance summary to the communication interface for display to at least the employees identified in the sales reports.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sales reports are received from a point-of-sale system associated with the first retail establishment each time a sale is completed.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that a predetermined time period associated with the first retail establishment has elapsed; identifying a proprietary format of the POS system; formatting a request for the POS system to provide the sales reports; and sending the request, formatted in the proprietary format, to the POS system for the POS system to provide the sales reports.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance summary comprises a graphical representation of the sales associated with each employee who has completed a sale.
 5. The method of claim 3, further comprising: receiving a performance goal over the wide-area network, the performance goal comprising one or more time periods over which the performance goal is applicable; comparing, by the processor, the sales information from each of the employees as stored in the memory to the sales goal during a first of the one or more time periods as each sales report is received; determining that the sales goal has been achieved during the first time period; and providing a notification, by the processor, to the first retail establishment via the communication interface and the wide-area network, that the sales goal has been achieved during the first time period.
 6. The method of claim 4, further comprising: receiving, by the processor, an indication of an award via the communication interface, the award associated with the sales goal; determining that a first of the employees has achieved the sales goal; and providing a notification to the first retail establishment via the communication interface that the first employee has achieved the sales goal and an indication that the first employee has been awarded the award.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the award comprises a variable dollar figure based on the sales of the goods or services, and the method further comprises: in response to determining that a first of the employees has achieved the sales goal during the first time period, calculating the award as a predetermined percentage related to the sale of goods or services by the first employee as further sales reports are received in association with the employee; and updating the award as displayed by the employee video monitor to reflect the calculated award each time that a further sales report in received in association with the first employee.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the communication interface, a performance goal over the wide-area network, the performance goal comprising one or more time periods over which the performance goal is applicable; and providing an indication of the performance goal for display in association with the performance summary during the one or more time periods.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance summary is configured for display on the employee video monitor disposed within the first retail establishment.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance summary is configured for display on personal mobile communication devices used by the employees.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a minimum performance goal over the wide-area network, the minimum performance goal comprising one or more time periods over which the minimum performance goal is applicable; comparing cumulative sales information of each of the employees to the minimum performance goal during the time period; identifying an employee who fails to achieve the minimum performance goal based on each employee's cumulative sales; identifying remedial training content associated with the minimum performance goal; and providing the training content to the employee over communication interface via the wide-area network.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein providing the remedial training content to the employee comprises: formatting the remedial training content for display on a personal mobile communication device; retrieving contact information of the employee who has failed to achieve the minimum performance goal from the memory; and providing the formatted training content to a personal mobile communication device associated with the contact information.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the remedial training content comprises an identification of the minimum performance goal to which the training content is applicable, the remedial training content received over the wide-area network from a parent company of the first retail establishment.
 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a minimum performance goal over the wide-area network, the minimum performance goal comprising one or more time periods over which the minimum performance goal is applicable; receiving one or more of the sales reports from the first retail establishment associated with one or more employees during the first time period; accumulating the sales information associated with each of the one or more sales reports as the one or more sales reports are received over the wide-area network to determine a cumulative sales figure for each of the one or more employees; comparing the cumulative sales figure to the minimum performance goal as the sales reports are received during the first time period; determining that a first cumulative sales figure associated with a first of the one or more employees will not meet or exceed the minimum performance goal during the first time period; generating an alert message indicating that the first employee will not meet or exceed the minimum performance goal; and transmitting the alert message to the first employee during the first time period.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: in response to determining that the first cumulative sales figure associated with the first of the one or more employees will not meet or exceed the minimum performance goal during the first time period, identifying remediation content associated with a failure to meet or exceed the minimum performance goal; and providing the remediation content to the first employee over the wide-area network.
 16. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a minimum performance goal associated with predefined goods or services of the goods or services over the wide-area network, the minimum performance goal comprising one or more time periods over which the minimum performance goal is applicable; receiving the one or more sales reports from the first retail establishment associated with one or more employees during the first time period; determining a number of goods or services identified in the sales reports that match the predefined good or service as indicated in the minimum performance goal and storing the number in association with each of the one or more employees, respectively; determining a cumulative number of the predefined good or service received in the sales reports for each of the one or more employees; comparing the cumulative number of the predefined good or service of each of the one or more employees to the minimum performance goal as the sales reports are received; determining that a first cumulative number of the predefined good or service associated with a first of the one or more employees will not meet or exceed the minimum performance goal during a first of the one or more time periods; generating an alert message indicating that the first employee will not meet or exceed the minimum performance goal associated with the predefined good or service; and transmitting the alert message to the first employee during the first time period.
 17. The method of claim 16, further comprising: in response to determining that the first cumulative number of the predefined good or service associated with the first employee will not meet or exceed the minimum performance goal during the first time period, identifying remediation content associated with a failure to meet or exceed the minimum performance goal associated with the predefined good or service; and providing the remediation content to the first employee over the wide-area network.
 18. The method of claim 1, further comprising: comparing at least some of the sales information associated with at least some of the employees to determine a relative performance between or among the employees; identifying a first employee who has sold fewer goods or services than other employees' sales of goods or services; and notifying the first employee over the wide-area network that the first employee has sold fewer goods or services than the other employees.
 19. The method of claim 1, further comprising: tallying the sales report for each employee over a predetermined time period; providing the tallied sales report to a parent company after expiration of the predetermined time period.
 20. The method of claim 1, further comprising: accumulating the sales information in the sales reports to generate a cumulative sales report; receiving a store-wide performance goal over the wide-area network; comparing the cumulative sales report to the store-wide performance goal; determining when the cumulative sales report does not meet or exceed the store-wide performance goal; identifying remediation content associated with a failure to meet or exceed the store-wide performance goal; and providing the remediation content to the first retail establishment over the wide-area network for display on the employee video monitor. 